Lights go out during Seaford Tigers versus Pines Twenty20 night game

Jaws dropped when lights went out at a crucial stage of an MPCA T20 night game. What caused it had officials flabbergasted.

Seaford Tigers players had to wait while the lights went back on. Picture: Valeriu Campan

A night Twenty20 cricket game between Seaford Tigers and Pines was building to an exciting crescendo last week when, bang, the lights went out — at precisely 10pm.

With three overs to go, the Tigers were 5-127 in pursuit of 174.

A crowd of about 150 at Belvedere Reserve were left bemused, while a livestream audience of almost 10,000 must have wondered what the heck was going on.

Well, there’s a story behind the blackout.

In the lead up to the game, Seaford Tigers were apprehensive — more so about the sprinklers suddenly coming on.

“We’d been contacting council all week saying, ‘can you please make sure the sprinklers don’t come on’, because they come on at 8 o’clock every night,” Tigers captain Dave James said.

“And we didn’t even think about the lights.”

Seaford Tigers batsman Ash Mills on the attack. Picture: Valeriu Campan

It seems the lights have a timer connected to ensure they go off at 10pm — stemming from the footy club in winter.

“No one mentioned that to us and at 10 o’clock off they went,” James said.

After a fair bit of panicking, officials found the switch and managed to get the lights back on; the game resuming after a 10-minute break.

It also allowed Tigers batsman Ash Mills to bring up his century, charging to 110 not out, with 8 boundaries and 5 sixes, as the Tigers fell 15 runs short.

Ironically, Mills had seen it all before.

He was at Waverley Park in 1996 when the lights went out during the St Kilda-Essendon AFL game.